Yep, it’s a 20mm Madsen automatic cannon – circa 1936. And check out that bull bar in front!
Vintage Saturday: Danish Technical
Submachine Guns
Bergmann MP32 photos
We have a gallery of photos not of a Bergmann MP32 submachine gun, to add to the manuals already posted on the Bergmann MP32 page in the Vault: The bolt handle on the MP32 does […]
Anti-Tank Rifles
Aberdeen Proving Grounds Tests the Madsen in 7mm and 20mm
In October of 1940, the US proving ground at Aberdeen, Maryland conducted testing of both the Madsen light machine gun (in 7mm caliber) and the Madsen anti-tank/anti-aircraft cannon in 20mm. On November 8th it published […]
General Purpose MGs
Reptilicus: Danish MGs in Action
Want to see more Danish machine guns (mostly Madsen LMGs, but also a couple Madsen-Saetters) in one place than you’ve ever seen before? Well, try the 1961 Danish monster flick “Reptilicus”. It’ a pretty terrible […]
Great picture, but it doesn’t stand a chance against the infamous Danish Nimbus antitank motorcycle with its 200mm cannon.
I believe you mean 20mm, although the image of a motorcycle with a cruiser cannon is fairly entertaining.
That’s nothing compared to the mighty Vespa 150 TAP, aka, the motor scooter that mounts a 75mm recoilless rifle.
Info here:
Damn! I have to remember to not put carrots around URLs when posting here.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vespa_150_TAP
There is no new thing under the sun, eh?
From the Link which Big Al kindly provided a few weeks back, to a readable online version of Chinn’s the machinegun vol 1 p233
Here’s “Samuel M. McClean Demonstrating His 37-mm Automatic Cannon.”
http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ref/MG/I/img/MG-1-121-79.jpg
Mounted on a very cool old truck
Here’s the link to the root menu
http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ref/MG/
What a great idea for a military application. Sit on and elevated and exposed flat deck track. Just need a big fluro orange sign saying please shoot me on it to complete the package?
Think of the Huey door gunners. The whole idea is to make the other guy keep his head down so he can’t take advantage of your exposure.
Technically (no pun intended), this kind of mount (for travel only) is called a portée. Brits used them extensively in the Western Desert (presumably because they didn’t have SPs or towed AT/AA guns). The smaller guns could be fired from the truck bed, but generally weren’t; portée rigs went as big as 25 pounders (the UK equivalent of our most-used 75mm artillery pieces) and you wouldn’t want to impart the recoil from that (even hydraulically managed recoul) to a Bedford QL. A 2 pdr (37mm AT gun, maybe. 6 pdf (57) probably not. 25 pounder, no way in hell.
Here’s an exemplar of a survivor. http://www.shoplandcollection.com/heavies/65-austin-k5-gun-portee While they talk about firing from the truck bed there are reasons this is tactically unsound.
1. you have to pick fore or aft before you load up the gun. You can’t change its orientation once it’s in place.
2. this 6 pdr is an AT gun. If the tank is in range, so are you. (PZ III: 50mm high velocity, this era PZ IV, 75mm low velocity guns). And the tanks have armor on — you don’t. Advantage Rommel.’
Duh. I meant “because they didn’t have SPs or Tank Destroyers.” Obviously, they DID have towed AT guns. The portée was lighter and faster to emplace and displace (it dispensed with the ammo limber and separate crew vehicle, everybody rode in the truck and the ammo was there, too.